After being cheated on by her fiancé, the last thing Lydia wants to do is room with her brother and his 2 roommates, but what happens when she has no where else to go?
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Devastated by a betrayal...
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"That is correct, Mr. Dalton."
I rolled my eyes as the teacher's pet answered yet another question correctly in the hour and a half class that had stretched on for what felt like years.
He was the epitome of annoying and competitive and when he realized that I could give him a run for his money in terms of top of the class, he took the initiative to raise his hand before the question was even out of the professor's mouth so I couldn't answer a question edgewise. It was more than disconcerting especially considering the fact that part of the class grade had to deal with participation but I would cross that bridge when the student debate project came up later in the term.
I had left Texas last May, started my summer course and Malcolm Dalton had been there from the very beginning, bugging me about classes and asking me why I had cuts and bruises all over my body from the recent car accident. It didn't take him long to realize that I didn't appreciate his line of questioning and finally dropped it, until I started making better grades than him in our shared summer class.
After that he was relentless, and I ended up blocking him on all my socials, trying to make sure that he didn't connect me to any incidents regarding my past. Suspiciously, he didn't bring up anything about my past the next class we had together, but there was a mischievous glint in his eyes, like he knew all of my secrets, and even though I knew that was impossible, it still worried me.
There was no way he could connect me to Rafael, Christian, and even Emmett...except for those pesky articles still lingering online when someone googled my name no matter how much I wished it weren't the case.
I had to face the fact that the majority of my private life just...wasn't private anymore, and while it was a hard pill to swallow, at least a part of my life was normal. Academic rivalry, while annoying and cliche, was something that was normal and that I could get used to.
After summer classes ended and the new school term started back up and I was stuck in classes filled with eighteen year olds fresh out of high school, I was one of the only older students at twenty-one, and Malcolm Dalton matched me in age and intelligence, so it was familiar to have that competition, but lately he was taking it more seriously than before.
Now in mid-January with the playoff games still ringing in my ears and Emmett Scott's name choking me in my anxious memories, now was not the time for him, or anyone, to find out the truth about my damning relationship with the rising football star.
The class ended without a single question answered by me, and the ones answered by anyone besides Malcolm were questions that neither of us knew the answers to except for the overachieving freshmen. I hung my head in exhaustion, the remnants of the night before weighing on my shoulders even though I had no intention of stopping my quest.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure the professor doesn't think you're completely stupid."
I rolled my eyes at Malcolm's remarks as a small smile flitted onto my face. He was so insignificant that his 'insults' were just funny to me. It took more than that to get under my skin, and he was seemingly put off by my refusal to be offended by his remarks.
